The tradition
Roger de (or of) Coverley (also Sir Roger de Coverley or ...Coverly) is the name of an English country dance and a Scottish country dance (also known as The Haymakers). An early version was published in The Dancing Master, 9th edition (1695). The Virginia Reel is a North American adaptation. 1
History
The dance Roger of Coverly probably originated in Northern England; An early version was published in The Dancing Master, 9th edition (1695). The tune is said to derive its name from the Calverley family, who hailed from Calverley, Yorkshire. A manuscript in the British Museum called The First and Second division Violin, which is attributed to John Eccles, 1705, describes the tune as "Roger of Coverly the true Cheisere way." Alternatively Roger refers to Royalists in the English Civil War and that ‘Coverly’ was a corruption of ‘Cavalier’ The Virginia reel is a North American adaptation. The dance is supposed to be danced at the end of the evening. 1
References in modern culture
It is mentioned in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) when the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a party from his apprenticeship with Mr. Fezziwig. "...the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler ... struck up 'Sir Roger de Coverley'. Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig." In the 1951 film Scrooge, based on Dickens's story and starring Alastair Sim in the title role, the fiddler is shown playing the tune at an energetic tempo during the party scene. It figures in William Makepeace Thackeray's short story The Bedford-Row Conspiracy as the musical centrepiece of a political feast pitting the Whigs against the Tories, and in Arnold Bennett's novel Leonora as music considered by the older gents as more suitable for a ball than the likes of the Blue Danube Waltz. The 1985 British TV adaptation of Dickens' Pickwick Papers showed the titular character, along with his friends performing the dance at Christmas celebrations at the Manor Farm - Mr. 1
Fictional character
Sir Roger de Coverley was also the name of a fictional character in The Spectator (1711), created by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. An English squire of Queen Anne's reign. Sir Roger exemplified the values of an old country gentleman. He was portrayed as lovable but somewhat ridiculous ('rather beloved than esteemed') (Spectator no. 2), making his Tory politics seem harmless but silly. He was said to be the grandson of the man who invented the dance. 1
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Roger de Coverley”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. 1
Roger de Coverley is country dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 2
The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 2
